Would RCL have done things differently than Carnival?

[RocksGal]

Out of curiosity, does travel insurance cover these types of costs?? We have a really good policy for our cruise in two weeks. I can even cancel for any reason if I wanted to. I say this so that the first answer I get is not, "well, trip insurance does not cover much. . ."

 

So, we are leaving Miami. What if a hurricane hits Miami and both Miami & Ft Lauderdale are closed. So we go into a new port and have to travel in some manner unplanned to get home. Does trip insurance cover this? Has anyone experienced this?

[firefly333]

Out of curiosity, does travel insurance cover these types of costs?? Does trip insurance cover this? Has anyone experienced this?

 

One lady in my group asked the PVP about insurance and was told she could purchase it at any time, that diabetes was not a pre-existing condition, so her biggest concern was to cover her diabetes unfortunately when she later got insurance thru Amex. So far only $20 of the approx $400 I spent is covered by my insurance. (taxis to get meds to the hospital ($200) and extra meds in cozumel, plus the taxi and rental car home (approx $200). Not a huge amount involved except for my car I admit. The meds turned out to be not needed, we did have 3 extra days of meds with us and came on home, but I was worried, so I expected to cover them out of my own pocket.

 

Many policies dont cover hurricanes Im told and the coverage may be limited to the days of your actual planned cruising dates. I think you would have to read your policy to know. I would read your policy to see if you are covered for hurricanes? Iv been told not all policies cover hurricanes, some have exemptions.

[amickeyfriend]

We were on the Navigtator several years ago when Hurricane Frances turned our 7 day cruise into a nine day. RCCL opened their phone lines to everyone. It was divided by airline. We were flying AA so all of the AA passengers where told to go to a specific place and the phone connection was established with the airline. Then one by one we discussed our travel plans with the airline and were rebooked. The secret was not to hang up the phone but to pass it to the next person. Establishing a phone connection would take large amounts of time. The captain also told us the time we would be passing Cuba that last night and suggested going to the top decks as cell phones might work there. Ours did and at least we got to tell family we were OK. I really didn't matter that we had booked our own air. We were treated very well and always informed about what was happening. As we boarded the Liberty this Aug 30, we were given the printed revised itinery.

[CanTex]

No question that Carnival could have handled this better. I think you already alluded to a substitute CD replacing Wee Jimmy, and she probably had never been through such an exceptional circumstance. That doesn't make it acceptable regardless. The captain shares some of this burden too and communcations were obviously lacking.

 

It would be purely speculative to say whether RCI would handle any better. I think there are plenty of examples where RCI has done better, and also where Carnival has as well. I think to generalize from what happened in one situation to apply to an entire cruise line could be pretty dangerous. Cruising in hurricane season on any cruise line can put you in some very unexpected situations regardless of who you're cruising with.

 

Now for some perspective. Given the huge area that Ike impacted and the uncertainties of the effects on the Houston-Galveston area, I'm not really sure that you could expect Carnival, RCI or any othe cruise line to have transportation options planned out for the thousands of people on the ship, Also, it certainly wasn't immediately clear that the Bayport Terminal was able to accept these ships.

 

We are now almost a week post-landfall and believe me, there are still many nightmare situations people are trying to sort out. 65% of us don't even have power yet. I am sure this was a nightmare for the OP too, but even with all the impacts I've sustained personally, I keep coming back to being thankful it wasn't as bad as it could have been and there are many MANY others in much worse situations than me.

[jbond]

We were on Brilliance during the Spanish fisherman's strike and I can assure you that if you had booked your own air, you were by yourself. RCI lied through their teeth about what they would do for us and we ended up getting dumped in a hotel 85 km outside Barcelona and no help from RCI. It was a €120 taxi ride back to the airport. We didn't expect any help, the strike and it's consequences were not RCI's fault, but the lies that we were told on board caused us a lot of inconvenience. Thank goodness for travel insurance.

On our last cruise on Splendour, Splendour developed a propulsion problem and it was several hours late getting into Lisbon. RCI arranged flights and hotels for passengers that had RCI air. All others were by themselves, even though the delay was RCI's responsibility. Debarking the ship was utter chaos, it took us over three hours to get out of the port area. RCI was nowhere to be seen.

[dutchess43]

We are now almost a week post-landfall and believe me, there are still many nightmare situations people are trying to sort out. 65% of us don't even have power yet. I am sure this was a nightmare for the OP too, but even with all the impacts I've sustained personally, I keep coming back to being thankful it wasn't as bad as it could have been and there are many MANY others in much worse situations than me.

 

 

Can Tex hoping that the huricane did not effect you to badly. You said a mothful with others in worse situations. My friend has a DS & bil that have a house in Beumont(hoped to have sold it soon) that had to be evactuated, they headed with their neighbot to their other house in Houston. When Ike hit a tree fell on the roof of the garage, while they were up tarping that one from the inside of the garage, another tree fell on the remainder of the house. When he went up on the roof trying to tarp that hole in the roof he slipped off & fell on the ground. As you can imagine the hard time the ambulance had getting to him. He is in I believe Texas med center with 8-12 cracked ribs, & a puntured lung that is collasped. He was scheduled to come home yesterday until they found blood has accumulated in that lung. Hopefully after a procedure to remove the blood he will be going home soon. We consider him lucky becasue he is still here to see another day.

[bay guy]

Being a Diamond Plus member, I have seen how RCI reacts to several different unexpected situations that come up during a cruise. I think RCI would have done a better job than Carnival did with the Galveston situation.

As an example, we were on an RCI Scandinavia/Russia cruise in 2006 sailing out of Harwich, England. The Londaon subway bombings happened a couple of days after we left port. we had many British citizens on the cruise, 4 of which were at our dinner table.

 

The folks at our table said that RCI immediately contacted them to see if they needed any assistance contacting family back home and offered ways for them to do so at no cost. They also told us that there were some British citizens that needed to leave the ship to get back to England and that RCI was making arrangements to help them with travel arrangements as soon as we arrived at our next port of call. We were told that a proportionate share of their cruise fare was being refunded to them.

 

RCI also made sure that we were aware of what was happening in London/England since we were returning to Harwich.

 

My wife and I had traveled to the port from London via train, which happened to leave from the train station in London which was located above the bombed subway station and was closed immediately after the bombings. We'd planned to return to London by train but wanted to make arrangements to hire a private car to take us back to Gatwick Airport since we didn't know if the train station would be reopened by the time we returned to port.

 

The purser's desk provided us with the names, phone numbers and web site addresses of a couple of limo companies we could use and we contacted them to arrange a car.

 

As usual for RCI, service above and beyond what you'd expect.

[Cruising89143]

I don't think that anyone can answer this question as the cruise lines seem to handle each case differently. Since you cruise on both Carnival and RCI, I don't see your coming over here and asking this question as "stirring the pot" either. I'm glad that you made it home okay but I know that it must have been very stressful and unless someone was in your shoes, it would be tough to know what you went through trying to get home.

[TEXASMUNK]

A few thoughts:

 

$25.00 deposit for the extention cord. Carnival knows their customer base, RCU knows theirs. Enough said!

 

Weather updates: CNN

Probably more timely than a Captain's announcement. Also, imagine the reaction if the Captain come on and says "Heading right for Galveston, you guys who parked in the lots are really in big trouble"

cannot blame them for this.

 

Dumping you in the New Port of Houston. Yep, here is where they can take a few well deserved blows. Arrange for buses to airports, or announce no buses available due to the storm. OR, come into New Orleans, where there were buses, taxis, phones that worked, and electricity in the city for those stuck in town another day or two.

 

CCI botched the end of the cruise.

 

RCI, would probably given all of you a free cruise a ride home and an extra $100 spending money.....seriously, no idea how RCI might have handled the situation.....

 

Sorry for your vehicle loss. Hope for a brighter future for you!

[teedee]

I was on the Conquest when the hurricane hit Galveston. I heard many say RCL would have helped cruisers more. Im wondering if this is true or what RCL cruisers think. Thats my question. Please post to the question and not turn this into a bashing thead.

 

A lady next to me said RCL did not charge her for a extension cord for her CPAC breathing machine, Carnival made her put up a $25 deposit. She was upset about other things and just rattling off the things she was upset with Carnival about, saying Carnival never again.

 

Would RCL have dumped us at the curb in a unfamiliar city with no help. As most of you know thats what happened to us on Conquest. Yes, they said that we could stay on the ship and try to get back into Galveston at a later date, but we all saw on tv Galveston was devasted and knew going back into Galveston wasnt going to happen, it was written by the legal dept to cover their asses so they had no responsibility to help us. We got off Monday and went thru Customs and we left the ship to find our way home. Coming back to the new port of Houston didnt get mentioned until very late Monday, by then all but 380 of the 3000 onboard had left the ship. (Im just covering this ground as folks on Carnival board say well we could have stayed on board and explaining why we didnt).

 

No hurricane update all day the day before the hurricane hit and many of us were parked at Galveston, so we wanted a update to the path of the storm. We were told 5 pm that ship would now be going into New Orleans but no list of airlines or rental cars or hotel phone numbers came out until much later. Sure we got one free phone call after waiting in line on our feet for 2 hours, but mine didnt work out so they said back to the end of the line. I heard there were only 5 phone lines on the ship, so one free phone call and if you called a rental car place that didnt have what you needed tough.

 

I was with two disabled pax, which made it a hardship in my case. The lady with the breathing machine was in a wheelchair and traveling alone we spoke with in the disabled disembarkation lounge. Iv been blasted on Carnival threads from folks not on the cruise, saying Carnival did the best they could, they couldnt have done anything any better .... of course from folks who were not there. No cruiseline is perfect, but I think there was room for improvement ....

 

My question is would RCL have done anything more?? Should I quit cruising during hurricane season if Im dealing with disabled pax?? I have another cruise with both disabled pax I travelled with this time. They are both mentally and physically disabled. Neither could drive or input any suggestions, I was on my own, the only abled bodied among us.

 

Maybe its true, all Carnival owed us was to dump us at the curb in New Orleans to fend for ourselves and thats all RCL would have done. Im just curious if RCLers think. Am I expecting too much that RCL would have done better? Anyone with any experience in this area. I was totally gung ho about cruising, now I know the down side. My car was bought brand new and had very little mileage, so of course I wanted hurricane updates in a timely manner, folks on Carnival say why?? the hurricane never changed course. They dont fault Carnival for the lack of updates and information available onboard.

 

I did not expect a hand out, but I am saying, the other two in my party could not stand in a line for hours to make their one free phone call for instance. One of them called the purser's desk and was hung up on 3 times, others said they were also hung up on, folks were expected to come in person and stand in line to make other arrangements. I finally got a phone line at 2:30 am, so I did get out, and all was taken care of. I got home safely, still waiting to hear about my newish car.

 

I still want to know if RCL would have helped its pax more.

 

I followed the thread on the Carnival boards but didn't post when I saw how flamed you were getting. I think Carnival could definitely have handled this better. In many areas there was nothing they could do but they could surely kept you better updated, and I think they had a responsibility to the passengers to help you guys make arrangements for transfers out of New Orleans. I love Carnival but I think they definitely dropped the ball on this one.

 

As to the question would Royal Caribbean handled it differently, let me share my experience with you. I was on Grandeur and we were going to be several hours late getting into port due to mechanical difficulties. They gave us unlimited free internet for the remaining day and a half of the cruise. Captain Rob made numerous announcements telling us what was going on, and we could make free phone calls down at guest relations. It wasn't just one call, but we did have to go down there to make the calls. They had every phone down there for our use. I can't say enough on how well we were treated. Anyone who missed their flight and couldn't get out that day got reimbursed for hotel and transfer costs. Now I realize this was a mechanical problem and not weather related so there was more responsility on Royal's part, but they were wonderful and I can't help but feel that they would handle the hurricane situation better as well.

 

One last thing, I sent the paperwork in for my refund on hotel and transfer costs and got reimbursed in a week. Pretty darn good, I thought!

 

Terri

[halos]

I probably was naive going into this.

 

Not just you.

Everyone should take into consideration that although there have always been hurricanes and always a hurricane season, things are a lot worse than they used to be.

On top of the storms being more intense and more frequent, there is a lot more land development now that gets ruined and a lot more ships on the sea that cruise lines are dealing with, with tens of THOUSANDS of passengers out on the water while all these storms are brewing.

 

I think this is new to all of us, including the cruise lines.

[teedee]

So this is where you turned up. So many people who were on this same cruise posted on the Carnival boards disputing so much of what you said that it became laughable after a while.

 

The advise you were given there' date=' applies here. Don't cruise during hurricane season again and buy travel insurance when you cruise.

 

As to what RCCL might have done or has done in the past is irrelevant. Each incident is unique to it's own circumstance. No matter how you cut it, Carnival isn't going to settle a huge cash windfall in your pocket.[/quote']

 

I never saw ANYWHERE over here or on Carnival where the OP was asking for a "huge cash windfall". It seems like she would have been happy with assistance getting to the airport in New Orleans, which in my opinion Carnival should have done, at the very least!

 

I don't blame here at all for coming here asking her questions. What I don't understand is why you feel the need to come here and harass her.

 

Terri

[satxdiver]

OMG the trolls have crawled out from under their bridges! How sad.

[ikelmay]

So this is where you turned up. So many people who were on this same cruise posted on the Carnival boards disputing so much of what you said that it became laughable after a while.

 

The advise you were given there' date=' applies here. Don't cruise during hurricane season again and buy travel insurance when you cruise.

 

As to what RCCL might have done or has done in the past is irrelevant. Each incident is unique to it's own circumstance. No matter how you cut it, Carnival isn't going to settle a huge cash windfall in your pocket.[/quote']

 

What is it with you? I have never seen so many spiteful and venomous posts from a single person. Do you have a single charitable bone in your body? Every time I log on you are telling someone to have "read the cruise contract" or dissing a poster for not "accepting responsibility". Occasionally people just may be seeking advice or input of a constructive nature.

 

Apologies to everyone else for the rant, but enough is enough.

[Darkwolfe]

ikelmay- Sad to say, that's pretty typical for that poster. I'm getting to the point that I feel a little sorry for the individual.

 

As for what the cruiselines can do in a situation like this.. Really really hard to tell. An earlier poster made a very good comment about hopeing the cruiselines look, listen, and learn from this experience.

 

The other part that has to be considered is that the decision maker is the Captain of the ship in this case. It's entirely possible that the Captain was relaying information back as fast as he could get it. We will likely never know anything that happened on the bridge so that's purely speculation on my part.

 

Another thing that comes into play is the current financial status of the cruiselines. They're all feeling a fuel pinch this year and discretionary funds for something like this may not be available. The cruiselines insurance doesn't cover anything like this either.

 

Personally, I regard hurricane season as the season to expect things to go wrong and plan accordingly. Got lucky last October as we missed Noel by one week. The next cruise had to deal with it.

 

As long as the Captain is fulfilling his primary responsibility (protecting his passengers, crew, and ship) in a situation likes this, I'm going to be content with his choice even if I don't like where I wind up. Get some sugar, I'll make some lemonade and go from there!

 

Loosing a car in a parking lot stinks no matter what though. Hope that comes out better than you expect.

[rubrrick]

Maybe if all cruiselines would have dumped us on the curb, what I need to do is rethink cruising, and avoid hurricane season. I know Im not a experienced cruisor, all my cruises except for some very early ones have been since Halloween 2006. I have very few cruises under my belt and really didnt know a cruise like this was possible, never crossed my mind. Now I know.

 

I probably should plan to cruise less and avoid possible storms because really I dont want to go thru this again. I probably was naive going into this.

 

 

My hat is off to you..........you have been around Cruise Critic for a long time..........and I thought that you had many more cruises. Thanks for your honesty.

 

One thing that you can almost never depend on.........is mother nature!!

 

I hope that, what was an ordeal for you, will come out to your liking in the end. :)

 

Rick

[Chigirlcruzin]

Unfortunately, communication seems to be a major weakness of Carnival in cases of emergency or uncertainty. I was on the Celebration back in the 90's when there was an engine room fire and we were stranded at sea for a couple of days. Suffice it to say, Carnival had the same problems then and was not overly accommodating to help us. While onboard, the communications were terrible and limited. Once we were transferred to the Ecstasy and taken back to Miami, they almost ignored what had just happened. Then, when back in Miami, we were left with a hotel bill. In our situation, we had another cruise planned (we were doing back to back, but our 2nd cruise was on a different ship and line). So, instead of going home, we needed to stay in Miami for an extra 3 days because of the early return. Carnival's only offering was to get us their Corporate rate at the hotel we were staying at. This was hardly any consideration for having to pay the extra nights in the hotel and eat during that time.

 

 

 

I was supposed to be on the cruise after you on the Celebration. It was my first cruise, and I was devastated when I saw the fire on the news:(. That said, my cruise was supposed to be 6/24. While they may have handled your situation poorly (I cannot imagine how miserable that had to be for you), I was happy with our situation. Carnival gave us 3 options - cancel for full refund and 25% future credit, move the booking to another date, or sail on the Imagination on 7/1. The Imagination was their new ship, and its inaugural voyage was scheduled for 7/8. They sent it out a week early to accomodate the 7/1 Celebration passengers, and because it's a larger ship, they could handle some of the 6/24 passengers as well. Since my friends and I were starting college in the fall at various universities, and because we were 18 with the flexibility to do so, we were able to change to the 7/1 Imagination sailing. I knew the day I found out about the fire the alternate plans.

 

Obviously, as you can see from my signature, I'm a Carnival fan. However, many people on the Conquest sailing are reporting the same things. None of us can judge because we weren't there, and we don't know first-hand how the situation is handled. Carnival is not perfect (stating the obvious to RCI cheerleaders:D ). Firefly, I'm sorry you had to go through this, and I'm sorry you're having a tough time on the Carnival boards. I read some responses over there, and some people are flat out nasty. One thing though - I keep seeing you post about Carnival not updating the hurricane's path. Was the satellite out and you weren't able to get CNN and other channels to get info on Ike (satellite went out on day 4 of a 7 day cruise once for me)?

 

I don't think it's fair for anybody to say X cruise line would have handled it better. Like I said above, you don't know unless you're actually in the situation. I never would have imagined Carnival just dropping people in NOLA without any assistance. Carnival did what they were obligated contractually, but from a business and PR perspective, they sure did themselves no favors. I would hope any other cruise line would be more accomodating, but I would have thought Carnival would have been more accomodating as well.

[Mikew0805]

This is just pure speculation, but I believe RCCL would have handled it better. I believe, RCCL would have provided transportation to passengers to get back to Houston. I also believe they would have been more agressive in assisting people who booked their own airfare, although I doubt they would have funded all or part of the change fees.

 

Unfortunately, communication seems to be a major weakness of Carnival in cases of emergency or uncertainty. I was on the Celebration back in the 90's when there was an engine room fire and we were stranded at sea for a couple of days. Suffice it to say, Carnival had the same problems then and was not overly accommodating to help us. While onboard, the communications were terrible and limited. Once we were transferred to the Ecstasy and taken back to Miami, they almost ignored what had just happened. Then, when back in Miami, we were left with a hotel bill. In our situation, we had another cruise planned (we were doing back to back, but our 2nd cruise was on a different ship and line). So, instead of going home, we needed to stay in Miami for an extra 3 days because of the early return. Carnival's only offering was to get us their Corporate rate at the hotel we were staying at. This was hardly any consideration for having to pay the extra nights in the hotel and eat during that time.

 

So, I think Carnival's performance in this matter is fairly consistent with how they have performed in the past. I think there needs to be more awareness of what they are contractually obligated to do and what they should do to build positive relationships with their guests and potential guests.

 

I factually disagree. On Serenade, there was a medical emergency.. ( And before you go there, they are the same same thing.. neither medical or hurricane within the cruise lines control ) We turned around and headed back to Hawaii. I was in Chops when the ship was turning.. I noticed it, most others did not. I asked, they said I must be mistaken. Two hours later, they tell us we are going back and the reasons why. That is fine.. no big deal to me.

 

They told us they would be late, but the degree of lateness kept changing. Again, fine with us.. we drove.. no plans broken. However, there was a party that I met from these boards on board, and they were totally disrupted, with absolutely NO assistance from RCI. They [ RCI ]kept changing EVERYTHING. There were many, MANY mad people on board complaining about the lack of communication. However, I think they gave the information they had at the time... Same as Carnival did. :rolleyes:

 

Well here is what it boils down to.. It's a cruise line.. not GOD! There is no way for them to predict things like this. They cannot communicate what they don't know for sure. In this situation, they said they plan to get back to Galveston, the letter was very clear, they could disembark.. or wait, and ride back with Carnival. I hear people saying "Well, there was no way to know when!" COME ON, do you actually think Carnival wanted to feed you for 2-3 weeks??? It was quite clear when I read the letter ( and was not on board ) that they were attempting to get back THIS week... ASAP... PRONTO..!

 

So my answer is.. NO, they probably would have done the best thing they could, like Carnival, and only communicate the information they had!

[Luv4dacruise]

So why are you following her over here? You're nothing but a pot stirrer with terrible advise.

 

Also, giving advise to not cruise during hurricane season is stupid. The season is 6 months long. Some people don't have a choice.

 

 

You, just said what i have thought for such a long time. I love it when people post a reply of "well, you shouldn't have booked a cruise curing hurricane season"....

 

Um, yeah, hello, the season if half of the year. Some peoiple just arent very bright i guess :p

[Mikew0805]

I believe my post was about the lack of communication. Where do I say Im hoping for a huge cash windfall. I never have mentioned wanting money.

 

I agree about no longer cruising during hurricane season. Im definetely rethinking that. Its awful to feel so cut off from information. Im a news junkie and usually its not a big deal during the cruise, but this time it was, at least to me.

 

Some of us know you are not looking for cash. You are in a situation, your feelings is that of what a lot of us would be feeling, if we were in that situation. We had the luck of being on land, and not being worried about what was going to happen next, so I am sure that is where a lot of our "opposite opinions" come from... that certainly does not mean they are right ones.

 

You know, I see your comment about not cruising in hurricane season! However, that leaves a lot of the year gone. I like the weather the best in the Caribbean between mid Sept - Early December. It's not as HOT!

 

Some of the best prices ( CCL & RCCL ) and weather, come between the weekend after Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas. I like the weather at that time, and the likelyhood of a hurricane is much smaller. Hopefully, you will not give up on cruising, no matter which line!